The FIFA Presidential Term controversy has been given a new lease on life with the recent vote of a human rights group, FairSquare, on a formal challenge to Gianni Infantino’s eligibility to run for another term as FIFA president.
FairSquare says Infantino has already reached the maximum presidential term allotted under FIFA statutes and should thus be barred from running again in a complaint filed with FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC).
The disagreement is over how to interpret Infantino’s first term in office. He was appointed FIFA president in 2016 after former president Sepp Blatter stepped down, at an Extraordinary Congress. FIFA, however, took Infantino’s view that this first term should not be included in the three-term countdown in 2022 and essentially deemed it to be the end of an unfinished mandate.
However, FairSquare takes the contrary view, arguing that the laws do not contain any exception for presidential elections, and that the law does have a clear limit of three terms. The group says the 2016 term “is a direct violation of term limits, which were created to ensure that the governing body of football is not too powerful.”
The complaint offers evidence that the current interpretation is a violation of FIFA’s own rules, and could set a troubling precedent for how international football is run, said Nicholas McGeehan, the director of the complaint. The matter comes up at an important time for FIFA. It is widely believed that Infantino will run for re-election in 2027–2031, and questions regarding his eligibility may be a key issue before the next FIFA Congress.
Next year Morocco will have a presidential election on March 18. The decision made by FIFA’s governance committee could have significant ramifications for the leadership of the organization and its governance.
